Reply To: Air Navigation

[manxcat]

To JDavHouston,
I think you’ve busted me: The poor eyesight and sextant connection was a great excuse for me not to get too involved with celestial navigation with all its math, astronomy, and mechanical [sextant servicing] challenges. Not to mention all the Celnav software for computers and handheld scientific-calculators. I chickened out. The view from the sidelines is most relaxing.
When you wrote about ‘good ol’ pilotage’ I thought of a show that I saw on the TV awhile back, like something that you would see on the “Mayday air disasters” series. Well, this private pilot along with his entire nuclear family were flying VFR to someplace and he was closely following the major freeway he needed to reach his destination safely. Everything was totally under control, except he was following the wrong freeway. The freeway that he actually was following ran right towards a major International airports restricted airspace. He inadvertently crossed the path of a landing jet airliner that was full of passengers. The accident investigators surmised afterwards that the private pilot was concentrating on looking to his right… where the freeway was located… and the jet airliner’s crew were looking to their left… where the International airport was located. The prop on the small plane hit the jet’s tail elevator and opened it up like a can-opener, with a series of nasty gashes along its length. The top of the small plane’s cabin was completely torn off (the TV show didn’t say if the family all had their heads cut off or not) The jet airliner was uncontrollable and shortly crashed killing everybody on board. So much for pilotage. I don’t like the feeling of getting lost in the countryside, especially when I am out of cellphone range. If GPS fails, it’s mini-pilotage for me–but I’ll be wondering: “Was this trip necessary?”
What is your flying experience? Tell me about it… I am interested.